Short message service (“SMS”), or “text messaging”, is a text-based messaging service that may be used by telephones, computer applications, the world wide web, mobile phones or other mobile devices. A basic SMS system, typically run by an SMS service provider, is usually a one-to-one communication configuration, e.g., messages exchanged between two mobile phones, or a one-to-many configuration, e.g., messages broadcasted to multiple mobile phones. A recipient of a message also receives metadata of the message, including a sender identifier and a recipient identifier, e.g., the sender's phone number and the recipient's phone number. The recipient of the message is able send a reply message back to the sender using the sender identifier because it may unambiguously identify the sender using the sender identifier of the message.
However, this approach requires a public identifier, i.e., a phone number, for each message sender, which may be cost inefficient. For example, certain business companies have a number of users who use SMS to exchange messages with other SMS service users. Some businesses have developed messaging service that facilitates sending messages from a server. In order to facilitate the users to exchange messages with users of other SMS services, e.g., public SMS services, a business messaging service may have to rent a public identifier for each user of the business messaging service, and have the server of the business messaging service use the public identifier of the user sending the message when sending a message to a message recipient. However, for services with a large number of users, this approach may be cost inefficient or even prohibitively expensive.
In order to reduce costs of such business messaging services, a business operator may rent a limited number of identifiers from an SMS service provider, e.g., a limited number of phone numbers, which may be used as sender identifiers to be included in the metadata of the messages being sent. Because the number of the identifiers is limited, the identifiers may only identify the business server of the business messaging service. If a message recipient responds with a reply message using the sender identifier, the reply message will be directed to the business server as opposed to an actual user that used the business server to send the message, and the server may not be able to identify the user for whom the reply message is intended.
In a practical satellite-based communication system, Higher Ground LLC's SatPaq™ messaging system provides messaging services to users in remote or isolated areas not served by any cellular networks. The SatPaq™ system communicates with SMS systems, e.g., wireless systems, via at least a satellite and a ground station. In the SatPaq™ system, many SatPaq™ users may send messages via the satellite and the ground station to mobile phones and/or computing devices. The metadata of a message sent by a SatPaq™ user may include the recipient's identifier, or a phone number of a mobile phone, and an identifier of the ground station. In order to enable any SatPaq™ users to send messages to users of the SMS systems and to receive reply message from the users of the SMS systems, the SatPaq™ system needs to send each of the messages with a unique identifier of the applicable SatPaq™ user. Hence, the SatPaq™ system may require renting one identifier, e.g., a phone number, from an SMS system for each SatPaq™ user, which may be cost ineffective or even prohibitively expensive.
In order to reduce costs for renting the identifiers, the SatPaq™ system may rent a limited number of identifiers from an SMS system, which may identify the server of the SatPaq™ system. With a recipient's identifier, e.g., a phone number, the message may be transmitted from the user of the SatPaq™ system to the recipient. However, when the recipient sends a reply message intended to the SatPaq™ user, the reply message may not be routed to the intended SatPaq™ user because the recipient server and the ground station of the SatPaq™ system do not, under such circumstances, have sufficient information to identify the specific SatPaq™ user, so the ground station cannot route the message back to the specific SatPaq™ user.
Various other business systems, such as accommodation booking systems and airlines and railway systems may encounter similar issues, in which the system is capable of sending out notifications, but does not provide a means by which to directly respond to the sender of the message. For example, an airline may permit a traveler to receive various types of alerts, e.g., via SMS. This is generally done by a person who works for the airline or is associated with the airline via a central computer/SMS transmission facility of the airline, which is associated with a single public identifier. However, if the traveler wants to follow up on the alert, e.g., with a question, if the traveler simply replies to the message via SMS (i.e., using the public identifier), the traveler's follow-up message goes to the central computer/SMS transmission facility, but the central computer/SMS transmission facility may generally be unable to route the follow-up message to the specific sender of the original message.
In view of the foregoing reasons, it may be desirable to have a system and method for uniquely identifying a sender of a message in a cost efficient manner, e.g. without renting a unique identifier/phone number for each sender, when the sender uses a business-type messaging service.